Jikkenteki

For me Pink Floyd - On The Run started it all, having grwn up listening to that. After many years away exploring metal, rock, and eventually some classical and jazz as well, while some Juno Reactor stuff from 1993 got my attention, the two tracks that probably officially brought me back completely to electronic music would be Prodigy - Poison which got me actively searching again, followed by DJ Soul Slinger - Abducted (U.F.O. mix) which sealed the deal.

Not true, the majority of computers and such here are Microsoft. It's just that Microsoft doesn't have a clue how to advertise to a Japanese market. I think the blu-ray/hd-dvd thing here will be a much bigger issue MUCH sooner than everywhere else because huge high definition televisions and such are a big deal here. In 2011 Japan will completely stop using analog transmission for television and everything will go digital, so the beginnings of a price war for large high definition digital tvs have already begun. In the middle of this push has come the blu-ray push as well. And from HD-DVD... almost not a word yet.

Last year in an interview Saiko sounds said that overall their sales had increased, but the sales per title have gone down since there are so many titles. That side, my sources in distribution in Japan tell me that in the last year overall sales have dropped between 50% and 70% very rapidly.

In Japan HD-DVD is almost completely non-existent, while Bu-ray discs are available at nearly every video store I go to and are also available for rent in most places. I think I've seen a HD-DVD disc MAYBE once. True Playstation 3 didn't make the splash Sony was hoping for, mostly because Nintendo's Wii is a bit more popular (although in all honesty, none of the major video game platforms is doing particularly well at the moment. X-Box is a non-issue in Japan and Playstation 3's issue at the moment seems to be mostly a lack of good games so people are going to Wii by default. That said the true king of video games in Japan at the moment is actually Nintendo DS), but recently I've been seeing blu-ray players making there way into stores and ads for them on TV. And during all of this, never a peep from HD-DVD. I'd say the battle is still far from over, one way or the other.

I'm really not sure what the future will bring. At the moment I suspect more of a focus on free net releases for awhile or something, but who knows. I will of course keep making music and will most likely give most of it away for free, but the whole "pro" thing has completely turned me off for the time being. If printing plants would just be willing to make small print runs for a reasonable price around here things might be different, but alas....

For the last several months I've been wrestling with the "business" side of music, among other things. Due to issues in my personal life that have gutted me emotionally, coupled with the "business" issues of running PAR-2 and trying to do music at some professional level as an artist, which has gutted me financially, I am, for all intents and purposes, going to quit doing music seriously. PAR-2 will still release Zekazy's album when he has finished it, but after that future of PAR-2 is uncertain. My second album, "Flights Of Infinity" has been finished for over 14 months, but I am STILL waiting for other people to finish their sides of the project. Once that is finished I will make the album available as a free download on wav and mp3. If there is enough interest and a prayer I might break even I MAY do a very small printing in the future, but that is 50/50 at best now. Psynews has been my best source of support so far so I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me up to this point. Best regards, Rennis/Jikkenteki

CD sales are at an all time low, even here in Japan which was always considered the last good market. At PAR-2 we have tried the "make the cds cheaper" model, we have tried the free full preview model. Here's the ugly truth for our last two releases. Jikkenteki - The Long Walk Home (2006): Copies we have recieved money for to date 186 (currently about -$850) VA - Mainspring Motion (2007): Copies we have received money for to date 32 (currently about -$1400) [we made this available as a full preview] Since October the sale we did here last Oct. we have sold one copy of Mainspring on Discogs, one copy of Long Walk Home also on discogs and 11 copies of Mainspring at a release party in Japan last Nov. So basically it seems that if you try to work outside of the established market, like we do, you don't have much of a prayer. And the established market isn't in much better shape either. As for making money for playing live, I have only actually been paid to play live 3 times in my life. Each time I recieved $100 to $150. Each time getting to the venue cost me about $350. Artists in Europe seem to have a better chance at making some money live, but in general in Japan, the only artists who are making any money at all are the international guests who are flown in. Most likely all the local artists and djs are getting nothing unless they are very lucky.

Living Colour - Stain Doug Wimbish has one of my favorite bass tones in the world

I just asked Sharaku about Vol 2 and it seems that the CD everyone thinks of as Vol 1 is actually Vol 2. The real volume one only had 200 copies printed and was given away. It's since been "lost in the darkest" as he says.

I would consider my taste fairly broad. I will give ANYTHING a chance, regardless of what popular opinion is. Simply put my only cirteria is whether the piece moves me in some way. If it does that, then I could care less about what sub-genre it is.

I am a lot more open than many when it comes to 1200 Mics and I liked GMS'...er.. I mean 1200 Mic's first two albums. However I thought Time Machine was just about the worst release I heard that year and Magic Numbers seems to be even worse. If you enjoy them, then that is great, but I'd say at least check out their first two albums before calling Time Machine a 9/10. ... but then again, different strokes for different folks.

Jikkenteki - Automagic (Subra Remix) ...... nice shit that Subra guy does

Excellent track. Used to spin it a lot.

Here I though it meant for Oh Oooh Oooooh Damn

Infected Mushroom, although I'm spacing the title of the track (Mushi Mushi?)

OOOD obviously. This is like comparing major league baseball to little league.

Jesus man, how long ago did you try Fruity? I first started using it nearly 7 years ago and it supported VST even back then.

It is a little past the deadline but why not. PM with which cds you want and I'll send you my paypal address. Best, Jikken-turkey

Best: The happy moment where you stumble across the perfect part that energizes the track and you just have to sit and listen to it looped for several minutes while you groove to it. Worst: Two for me, the first is usually simply getting the motivation to sit down and turn the computer on. The second is having some idea for a part in your head, sitting down and working on it for two or three hours only to take a break, come back and realize it just isn't working. The plus side for me of this part of the process is that after deleting said part, my mind is cleared of any preconceived ideas and the parts that fall under the "best" catagory usually come out soon after.

If I'm going for an arp'ed sound I generally tend to write mine own arps. If I think about it, I do often tend to use arpeggiators to "busy-fy" a lead I have already have clearly writing to function as a variation of the original. Unlike many I am also a fan of the random mode as I like to do little things to "break" patterns and keep the ear interested. Only rule I can really say is I use 'em if they sound right for the situation.

Simon Posford has used straight factory presets on many occassions, yet I don't see people complaining about that all that much.

All my vst's work in Live. Just an idea, but are you dropping them into audio or midi tracks in Live? From what I recall (away from my Live'd lappy right now) synths run from midi tracks and won't load into audio tracks. I also seem to recall if you just double click a synth it will automatically open in a new track in the mixer for it. I know there are some native cubase plug ins that won't work in other apps, but everything else works here no problem.

I play vst synths live in my live sets all the time. One possible problem is that you have the mixer channel settings wrong so you aren't hearing it. I often have that issue when making a live set, usually I just need to set the monitor from "Auto" to "In" and then I can hear what I am playing no problem. Midi loops I haven't played with so much (I tend to use audio loops) but when I have, again its usually just been a routing issue to get them to work properly. In my experience everything in Live seems like a pain until you figure it out, after which you are usually like "Oh, how did I miss that?"/

Fantastic EP here! Further proof that most labels are clueless when this stuff gets passed up cuz it "doesn't fit into genre XYZ" and yet tons of other other musically devoid filler gets pushed out day after day. Afrodust is probably the best thing I can recall hearing in the last 6 months! Get it!!!!

More Minnesotans??